This invention relates to a means for handling sheets of material of various lengths as they are fed from a source and more particularly relates to an apparatus for handling sheets of material such as paper from a computer printout device and automatically securing said sheets into individual rolls.
There are many operations, commercial and otherwise, wherein a continuous roll of material is used as supply for a plurality of individual, consecutive operations, each of which requires only a portion of said material. In such operations, the material used is normally cut from the roll after a particular operation has been carried out so that said material is available in individual, separate sheets, each representing a separate operation. For example, in certain operations for processing seismic data, a continuous roll of printout paper is fed through an electrostatic plotter coupled to a computer. After a particular computer printout is recorded on the paper, that particular portion of the paper is cut from the roll so that it may later be individually retrieved for analysis. Where the plotter is unattended as is often the case or where a particular plot is of undue length, difficulties sometime arise in handling the various lengths of paper as they are cut from the roll.
Presently one technique for handling the paper is merely to cut the paper at the end of a plot printout and let it drop loosely into a basket or the like. The various lengths are later retrieved from the basket and then manually rolled or folded into individual packages. Another technique utilizes a takeup roller driven by a torque motor to roll the paper as it is fed from the plotter but this requires an operator to be present to manually remove an individual roll of paper from the roller at the conclusion of each particular plotting operation.